The present invention relates generally to the field of apparatus and methods for sealing wounds in the blood vessels of humans or animals. More specifically, the invention relates to a guided vascular compression device for percutaneously sealing arterial or venous punctures subsequent to surgical procedures, by promoting in situ hemostasis.
A large number of medical therapeutic and diagnostic procedures involve the percutaneous introduction of instrumentation into a vein or artery. For example, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), most often involving access to the femoral artery, is performed hundreds of thousands of times annually, and the number of other such vessel-piercing procedures performed, e.g., percutaneous coronary angiography and atherectomy, has exceeded two million per year.
In each event, the closing and subsequent healing of the resultant vascular puncture is critical to the successful completion of the procedure. Traditionally, the application of external pressure to the skin entry site by a nurse or physician has been employed to stem bleeding from the wound until clotting and tissue rebuilding have sealed the perforation. In some situations, this pressure must be maintained for half an hour to an hour or more, during which the patient is uncomfortably immobilized, often with sandbags and the like. With externally applied manual pressure, both patient comfort and practitioner efficiency are impaired. Additionally, a risk of hematoma exists since bleeding from the vessel may continue until sufficient clotting effects hemostasis. Also, external pressure devices, such as femoral compression systems, may be unsuitable for patients with substantial amounts of subcutaneous adipose tissue, since the skin surface may be a considerable distance from the vascular puncture site, thereby rendering skin compression inaccurate and thus less effective.
More recently, devices have been proposed to promote hemostasis directly at the site of the vascular perforation. One class of such puncture sealing devices features intraluminal plugs, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,852,568--Kensey; 4,890,612--Kensey; 5,021,059--Kensey et al.; and 5,061,774--Kensey. This class of device is characterized by the placement of an object within the bloodstream of the vessel to close the puncture.
Another approach to subcutaneous puncture closure involves delivery of tissue adhesives to the perforation site, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,899--Hammerslag. Some likelihood exists of introducing the adhesive so employed disadvantageously into the bloodstream. U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,246--Sinofsky discloses the concept of applying pressure directly to an artery, and relies on the directing of laser energy through an optical fiber to cauterize the wound.
Yet another proposed solution to obviate the reliance on skin surface pressure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,616--Fowler, wherein a cylindrical plug is inserted along the shaft of a catheter segment extending from the skin surface to the blood vessel. The catheter is then removed so that the plug can expand as fluid is drawn into the plug from the vessel and surrounding tissue. Unless pressure is applied, however, bleeding may occur around the plug into the subcutaneous tissue. Another approach that similarly deposits a plug into the tissue channel is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,391,183--Janzen et al., which discloses a variety of plug delivery devices including threaded plug pushers and multilegged channels. As in the other disclosed methods for introducing a foreign plug into the incision, the Janzen et al. plug material, generally resorbable, is not removed from the patient once installed. Such permanent placement of foreign material into the body may result in inflammation or scar formation in the long term.
Furthermore, many of the prior art devices rely on tactile sensation alone to indicate to the surgeon the proper placement of the puncture closing instrumentation, and may require upstream clamping of the blood vessel to reduce intraluminal pressure to atmospheric at the puncture site.
As the foregoing description of the prior art demonstrates, none of the heretofore proposed solutions fulfills the need for a relatively simple, non-cautery apparatus and method for subcutaneously applying pressure directly to the vicinity of the vessel puncture by means of a pressure element that is removed from the patient once sealing of the puncture is achieved. There is a further need for a puncture sealing system that features use of instruments already in place at the access site so that the position for possible reentry is not lost, and the time required for the physician to change instrumentation is minimized. There is a still further need for a system that maintains pressure on the puncture site by lightweight mechanical means, thereby relieving the patient from the discomfort of external compression means, and freeing hospital personnel from constant surveillance of cumbersome external pressure structures for the duration of the hemostasis. There is also a need for a hemostatic device that can be effectively employed regardless of the thickness of the tissue between the skin and the puncture site, by applying localized pressure close to the puncture site, rather than remote, diffused pressure to the skin surface.